The Media Excuse Obama’s Power Grab

Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Postreported late last month that “the Obama administration is prepared to push its environmental agenda through regulation where it has failed on Capitol Hill.” There was no hint that this approach is illegal or unconstitutional. The account simply assumes that the Obama Administration can do what it wants, no matter what Congress or the law says.

This kind of matter-of-fact reporting about lawlessness by the federal government is typical of the decline, if not death, of adversary journalism in the nation’s capital.

The problem for the administration is that the new House of Representatives is going to be controlled by Republicans who have pledged fidelity to the Constitution. Rep. Fred Upton, incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, declared, “We will not allow the administration to regulate what they have been unable to legislate—this Christmas surprise is nothing short of a backdoor attempt to implement their failed job-killing cap-and-trade scheme.”